Following Jesus Via the Cross — E.A. Johnston

The Neglected Doctrine of the Crucified Life

My message today, friends, is on the crucified life. The last time I heard a sermon on this theme was by Stephen Alford, preached back in 2004. He was one of the last preachers of his generation to preach on the doctrine of the crucified life.

Hardly no one today preaches on this vital subject anymore, the life of discipleship, counting the cost, taking up one's cross and dying to self, the death of the self life, the crucified life, the cross and the life of the believer.

To some of you, I might sound like I'm speaking a foreign language, which you are quite unfamiliar with. A few preachers today will dare tackle the doctrine of the crucified life. It's not a pretty message.

The Shame and Pain of Calvary

A crucifixion is always ugly, repulsive. We'd rather preach messages that are appealing. But listen, friends, that cross was a bloody scandal. There was both shame and pain associated with that cross on Calvary's Hill.

The Savior hung there naked on that cross. It was a public scandal. There was shame associated with a crucifixion. Jesus was counted among thieves as he hung between two criminals. The shame and scandal of Calvary was almost too much to gaze upon.

You did not want to look at it. It was hideous and repulsive. The body of Christ was so badly scarred from scorching, his face so marred and swollen from beatings that Isaiah says, we hid our faces from him.

The sight of a crucified Christ was too much to look upon. Then there was the pain of Calvary, the physical pain of intense suffering associated with a man being crucified, the rack and pain of raw nerves, the throbbing head from dehydration, the open wounds full of pus from the lashings, the thick nails in his tender palms, the thick nails in his blessed feet.

The physical pain of crucifixion was the most horrible form of execution, far worse than burning at the stake or hanging from a tree. A crucified victim suffered intense agony for many hours without relief.

Christ Bearing Sin on the Cross

Add to this physical pain the fact that Christ bore our sins, Isaiah 53 .6 declares, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. All our hellish sins he bore on that bloody cross. Matthew Henry stated the following, the sins of all he was to save from every place and every age met upon him.

They were laid upon Christ when he was made sin, that is, a sin offering for us and redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. And add to this, friends, of all that suffering of Christ, and I believe the one thing that hurt Jesus the most while he hung on that cross, he had to suffer the turned face of the Father because God could not look upon sin.

Jesus cried out in agony of his soul, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Yes, friends, the shame and pain of the cross would have been too much for us to bear. We complain when we get a little headache, we go reach for a pain pill at the least little pain.

I say all this in my introduction because the only time we hear a message on the cross is usually around Easter and then it's more on the resurrection and not so much on the crucifixion of Christ. It's vitally important that we meditate on the crucifixion of Christ because it will humble us and drive us to our knees in thanksgiving to God for showing mercy to us.

When you think about it, all we really deserve is hell. But if you're a saved individual, then you are an object of mercy. And all this ties into my message today, friends. It's the perfect segue because the cross and the life of a believer is the most neglected doctrine in the church today.

Jesus’ Call to Deny Self and Take Up the Cross

My message today is entitled, Following Jesus via the cross, and my text can be found in Matthew's gospel in chapter 16. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We would be in verses 24 through 25.

Let me read that to us at this time. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

I will be very honest with you today, friends. I will share with you why the modern church does not preach the doctrine of the crucified life anymore. It's a doctrine that's purposely ignored by the vast majority of her pulpits.

Why? Why neglect the doctrine that Jesus taught? I'll tell you why. When the church in America decided that big was better and they went on a building spree and expanded their already bulging campuses, they ended up creating a problem for themselves.

They soon realized they needed to continually grow their congregations numerically to pay all the bills. I know of a big megachurch whose utility bill alone is several hundred thousand dollars a year.

Consumer Christianity and the Cost of Discipleship

It costs a lot of money to run a big institution, so the church needs your money to keep the ship afloat. So pastors will preach messages that are unoffensive and soothing to draw you in and keep you there.

I heard one pastor explain it this way. He said, we need bodies in here to fill up the seats. In other words, his focus was on counting nickels and noses. That's why, friends, chances are you won't hear many sermons on the doctrine of the cross in the life of the believer or on the crucified life.

It's not a pretty topic because it means dying to yourself, being dead to sin, a crucifixion is unpleasant. It's an unpleasant subject matter. Who wants to hear that after working hard all week? We just want to come to church and be entertained on Sunday.

Listen, friends, this generation of in for help church members just wants to be entertained. This generation of so-called Christians just wants to indulge themselves and still go to heaven. The last thing they want to do is what our text says to do and deny themselves, take up a cross and follow a crucified Christ in a life of self-crucifixion via the cross.

Following Christ Through Death to Self and Sin

But if you're going to follow Christ, friend, then you must deny yourself and not seek your own end, but take up your cross for a specific reason. The Roman custom of compelling those who were condemned to die by crucifixion had to each carry their own cross on the way to their own crucifixion.

Christ carried his cross to Calvary. Why should we call ourselves followers of Christ if we fail to carry our cross as well? When you saw a man walking beneath the burden of a cross, you knew one thing.

He was on his way to die. And that's what the Christian life is, friends. It's a death, a constant death to self and sin and to this world. You cannot be a sin loving person and still go to heaven. That would make Christ's death pointless.

You cannot love the world and be a friend of God. Rather, if you do, he considers you his enemy. The crucified life is the Christian life. And if you want to follow Jesus, then you must follow Jesus via the cross.

That's the Christian life in a nutshell. Now you won't hear that preached much anymore. Like I said, the last time I heard it preached was by Stephen Alford back in 2004. There's a book that you read today as well.

Born Crucified and Union with Christ

It was written by Ellie Maxwell, the founder of Prairie Bible College in Canada. It's entitled Born Crucified. And it's a book on the doctrine of the cross and the life of the believer. In the author's preface, he writes,.

This book is written to show the believer that from the moment he is saved, he is so related to the cross that if he henceforth fails to live by the cross, he is in utter ethical contradiction to himself and to his position in Christ.

Ellie Maxwell goes on to say, Christ's death for sin is automatically my death to sin. God's way of victory and deliverance is to cut us right off from the old Adamic tree and to graft us into Christ, joining us to him in death.

Apart then from any choice of my own as a believer, I am crucified with Christ. My being a Christian makes inevitable a crucified life. Now friends, that may sound like a foreign language to some of you.

It's a topic just not preached much anymore. My own copy of Born Crucified is a first edition from 1945 and it's dog-eared from my constant perusal of it. Another book I recommend to you, just as valuable and on the same theme, was written by the saintly F .B. Meyer.

It's entitled The Christ Life for the Self Life. And my copy is a first edition as well. It's like me, it's fallen apart because of age. And in that little book is a chapter that's worth its weight in gold.

It's entitled The Substitution of the Christ Life for the Self Life. And it speaks volumes on the subject of the crucified life, of taking up one's cross in a life of self-denial as we follow Jesus via the cross.

Selfishness as the Root of Hell

Listen to the wise words of F .B. Meyer, friends, as he relates what the life of a Christian should really be. The curse of the Christian and of the world is that self is our pivot. It is because Satan made self his pivot that he became a devil.

I take heaven from its center in God and try to center it in self. And you transform heaven into hell. I know little or nothing about the fire or the darkness or the worm of hell. Hell is selfishness and selfishness is hell.

And the philosophy of the Bible is to do away with self and to make Christ all in all. Did you hear that, friends? That's following Jesus via the cross. Allow me to explain to you on these terms. Take a moment and turn in your Bibles to Psalm 24.

Psalm 24 and the Conditions for Walking with God

There's a couple of verses in there I'd like us to read. Well, actually, verses three through eight. Let's take a look at those at this time. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And now allow me to illustrate this passage in the following manner, friends. Let's look at it from this aspect mentioned in our text that there's a walking mentioned with its conditions.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Well, one walks up a hill to get to the top. Often scripture speaks of a relationship with God by the term walking, as in Enoch walked with God. Well, how was our walk with God?

Are we out of step with God because of sin? Look at the conditions to walking with God mentioned in Psalm 24. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, he is the one who ascends into the hill of the Lord and who stands in his holy place.

Well, what does that mean? Clean hands and a pure heart. These conditions speak of two relationships. Clean hands speak of our horizontal relationship with others, with our fellow man. And a pure heart speaks of a relationship with God, which is a vertical relationship.

Horizontal Reconciliation and Vertical Holiness

We must ask ourselves this question. Am I out of harmony with my fellow man? Have I wounded someone and not apologized? Do I harbor bitterness and an unforgiving spirit in my heart? Have I dealt with someone falsely?

So this speaks of our horizontal walk with man. A pure heart speaks of our vertical walk with God. Am I out of step with God through sin? Am I harboring sin in my life and not willing to be parted with it?

How can I then walk closely with my God and still hug my sins? I cannot. How can I follow a crucified Christ when my own life is a self-indulgent one? I cannot. So imagine in your minds right now, friends, these two beams, the horizontal and the vertical.

And our relational beams speak of our horizontal relationship with our fellow man. And the vertical beam, our relationship with God. Are my relational beams lined up properly in my life? We must ask myself that.

Living by the Cross

Because when they are properly aligned, they form a cross. That's the secret to power with God and influence with man. The life of a believer should be lived via the cross. Listen, friends, the world religions like to gather at the foot of the cross.

But true Christianity gets up on the cross and stays there. Jesus said that if a believer will follow him, then he will deny himself and take up his cross and follow him. We must be willing to lose our life to save it.

How can a kernel of grain multiply unless it falls to the ground and dies? We live in a day of a compromised church and a diluted gospel message. Let us not be conformed to this world and its spiritual deadening influences.

And let us not be chloroformed by the present deadness in the church today that has compromised herself for prestige and acceptance. But let us say with the Apostle Paul. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. A message should be following Jesus via the cross. It should be the way we live our lives, friends.

Let us go to this time now and pray. Let us pray.